Techniques for Managing Persistent Document Collections

1. A system for creating and managing persistent document collections comprising: memory; a data store for storing one or more persistent document collections; and a browser-based content management application that receives user input from a client-side web browser, the content management application being processed to manage documents for a plurality of users, to create a persistent document collection grouping together a plurality of the documents upon user request from the client-side web browser and to assign an attribute to the persistent document collection that specifies any external applications with which the persistent document collection can share its documents, the persistent document collection enabling at least one of the plurality of users to access the plurality of documents as a group, and to store the one or more persistent document collections in the data store, in storage space allocated to the one or more persistent document collections, wherein the content management application is further processed to assign one or more attributes to the persistent document collection, wherein the one or more attributes include an amount of disk space measured in a multiple of bits or a multiple of bytes to allocate to the persistent document collection.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the content management application is further processed to receive a request from an external application for collection information regarding at least a portion of the persistent document collection, and in response to the request from the external application, the content management application being further processed to retrieve the collection information from the data store and return the collection information to the external application.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the collection information that is provided to the external application is used by the external application to allow at least one of the plurality of users to manage one or more of the documents that are represented by the collection information.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising: an external application, the external application being processed to request collection information regarding at least a portion of the persistent document collections from the content management application to enable at least one of the plurality of users to download the one or more of the documents that are represented by the collection information.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the external application is processed to download the one or more of the documents that are represented by the collection information.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the external application is processed to modify the one or more of the documents that are represented by the collection information.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the content management application is further processed to enable documents represented by at least a portion of the persistent document collection to be downloaded for further modification.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the content management application is further processed to enable documents represented by at least a portion of the persistent document collection to be synchronized with files residing on a computer specified by a respective one of the plurality of users.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more attributes include a frequency that indicates how often persistent document collections should be synchronized.

10. A method for creating and managing persistent document collections comprising the steps of: displaying a plurality of documents that are managed by a browser-based content management application that receives user input from a client-side web browser; receiving an add selection from the client-side web browser which specifies at least one document of the plurality of documents to add to a persistent document collection, the persistent document collection comprising a grouping of a sub-set of the plurality of documents, the persistent document collection enabling access to the sub-set of documents as a group and having an attribute that specifies any external applications with which the persistent document collection can share its documents; and storing the persistent document collection comprising the at least one document of the plurality of documents in a data store, in storage space allocated to the persistent document collection, wherein the content management application is further processed to assign one or more attributes to the persistent document collection, wherein the one or more attributes include an amount of disk space measured in a multiple of bits or a multiple of bytes to allocate to the persistent document collection.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: at a later point in time, receiving another add selection which specifies another one or more of the plurality of documents to add to a different persistent document collection.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: at a later point in time, receiving another add selection which specifies another one or more of the plurality of documents to add to the persistent document collection.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: at a later point in time, receiving a remove selection which specifies the at least one or more of the plurality of documents to remove from the persistent document collection.

14. The method of claim 10 , further comprising the steps of: enabling a user to download at least a portion of the documents that are represented by the persistent document collection for further modification.

15. The method of claim 10 , further comprising the steps of: enabling a user to synchronize at least a portion of the documents that are represented by the persistent document collection with files residing on a computer specified by the user.

16. A computer storage memory device having computer-readable, computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform steps comprising: managing documents for a plurality of users; enabling a respective user of the plurality of users to create persistent document collections grouping together a plurality of the documents, the persistent document collections enabling access to the plurality of documents as a group and having an attribute that specifies any external applications with which a persistent document collection can share its documents; enabling the respective user to modify the persistent document collections; specifying one or more attributes for the persistent document collections using a client-side web browser, the one or more attributes identifying one or more external applications that are allowed to access the persistent document collection; assigning, by a content management application, one or more attributes to the persistent document collection, wherein the one or more attributes include an amount of disk space measured in a multiple of bits or a multiple of bytes to allocate to the persistent document collection; and outputting a requested portion of the persistent document collections upon request from an external application identified by the one or more attributes so that the identified external application can download one or more of the documents that are represented by the persistent document collections for further modification by the user.